SE-HIP

Information

This aircraft was imported in 1979 and became Norrlandsflyg’s very first AS350 – and one of the first in the country as well. The company was very happy with the new addition to the fleet, but unfortunately the aircraft was lost in an accident just four months after the delivery.

Accident at Ammarnäs, 3 September 1979
At late dusk SE-HIP was airlifting a moose cadaver to a mobile butchery facility at Biellojaure, west of Ammarsnäs. The aircraft was climbing along a mountain and was just about to cross a saddle point when it ended up in heavy rain and poor visibility. The pilot, who was accompanied by two passengers, jettisoned the underslung moose and looked for an immediate place to land. When navigating in the poor visibility the aircraft collided with a rock formation and fell 10 meters to the ground. All three survived the accident, but one of the occupants suffered from rib and back injuries. He was left on scene as the pilot and the other passenger walked to Ammarnäs, some 11 km from the accident site. The wreck wasn’t found until noon the next day, some 15,5 hours after the accident, and the lone passenger died shortly thereafter, partly due to hypothermia.

The 240-hour aircraft was signed off as a wreck, but it was later repaired in France and sold to Italy.